Soskin lambasted the Blair regime the other day to an audience of German bankers.

In an after-dinner speech to the 21st Century Trust Fellowship, he scorned all the talk that New Labour had embraced the free market. ‘It has created a million public sector jobs financed by ever-higher taxes and this has squeezed out the private sector.

‘Taxes, red tape, employment tribunals and other burdens have cut UK growth and productivity well below US and even Australian levels. What Britain needed was the low tax and regulation of the USA, the education system of Germany and the transport system of France.’

As a former adviser to John Major, Soskin is probably not a top candidate for ermine, anyway.